ABSTRACT
With higher education, university graduates are important elements of the labor force in knowledge-based economies. With reference to the mental health and developmental problems in university students, there is a need to review university's role in nurturing holistic development of students. Based on the positive youth development approach, it is argued that promoting intrapersonal competencies is an important strategy to facilitate holistic development of young people in Hong Kong. In The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, a course entitled Tomorrow's Leader focusing on positive youth development constructs to promote student well-being will be offered on a compulsory basis starting from 2012/13 academic year under the new undergraduate curriculum structure. The proposed course was piloted in 2010/11 school year. Different evaluation strategies, including objective outcome evaluation, subjective outcome evaluation, process evaluation, and qualitative evaluation, are being carried out to evaluate the developed course. Preliminary evaluation findings based on the piloting experience in 2010/11 academic year are presented in this paper.
Subject(s)
Students , Universities , Adolescent , Hong Kong , HumansABSTRACT
This study examined fears about drug treatment among 300 young male heroin abusers in Hong Kong (172 newcomers and 128 repeaters) recruited from non-government treatment agencies. An indigenous 35-item Fears about Treatment Scale (Fears Scale) was developed to measure fears about treatment among the participants. Results showed that four factors (fear of failure, fear of labeling or disclosure, fear of maladaptation and fear of withdrawal) were abstracted from the scale. Reliability analyses showed that subscales based on these four factors and the total scale were internally consistent. The findings showed that treatment failure was the major fear in the respondents. The present findings suggest that drug treatment and rehabilitation services should help clients, particularly young substance abusers, mitigate their treatment fears.
Subject(s)
Drug Users/psychology , Fear/psychology , Heroin Dependence/therapy , Therapeutics/psychology , Heroin Dependence/psychology , Hong Kong , Humans , Male , Psychometrics , Young AdultABSTRACT
This study examined the reasons for seeking treatment among 300 male young heroin abusers in Hong Kong (172 newcomers and 128 repeaters) recruited from non-government drug treatment agencies. A 55-item Reasons for Seeking Treatment Scale (Reasons Scale) was developed to measure the participants' reasons for seeking treatment. The results showed that the scale was internally consistent and six factors with reliable related subscales were extracted. The findings are generally consistent with the "hitting of the bottom" hypothesis, which posits that drug abusers will seek help only when they perceive that their addicted life is out of control. The results suggest that drug treatment and rehabilitation services should target the reasons for seeking treatment among young drug abusers.
